Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo told ESPN.com that the idea of free agency carries some intrigue for him, though he stopped short of saying that he had decided with any certainty to pursue that avenue at the end of his current five-year, $55 million deal that runs through the 2014-15 season.

“It’s kind of like, I would say, maybe college recruiting,” Rondo told the website. “I’m pretty sure a lot more goes into it in the NBA. A lot more money is spent.

“I’ve heard stories, guys getting called right at midnight. It’s something that I haven’t experienced. I may want to go through it. I haven’t thought about it at all.”

In the race to claim one of the NBA’s worst records, this would have been a good night for the Celtics. But for those hoping for some wins, the 93-91 loss to the Magic was about as demoralizing a game as this season has presented.

The Celtics lost for the 14th time in their last 16 tries, extending their road losing streak to nine straight.

This one, however, was more than just another defeat. This loss came at the hands of a team seemingly in worse shape than the Celts.

With the victory, the Magic snapped a 10-game losing streak. They had also dropped their last 10 meetings with the Celtics.

Orlando still claims the worst record in the NBA, standing at 11-30, while the Celtics drop to 14-28. Brad Stevens‘ club is now tied with Utah and Philadelphia for the league’s second worst mark.

The loss was sealed when Orlando’s Tobias Harris sunk two free throws after Kris Humphries was whistled for a loose ball foul with 10 seconds remaining.

Avery Bradley lost control of the ball while driving to the hoop as the buzzer sounded, ending the Celtics’ final chance.

In his second game back after recovering from knee surgery, Rajon Rondo scored six points in 21 minutes, going 3-of-10 from the field while dishing out four assists.

The Magic finished with five players in double-figures, with former Celtic Glen Davis recording 17 points and seven rebounds. Arron Afflalo led the hosts with 20 points and 13 rebounds.

Celtics guard Jerryd Bayless was forced from the game after spraining his right toe.

Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo, out since last February when he required surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, told reporters on Friday that he will return to the court either this month or next, sometime prior to the All-Star break. The Celtics‘ final game of the half is on Feb. 12.

“It may be this month, next month,” Rondo told reporters at a Friday shootaround, prior to the Celtics‘ contest against the Golden State Warriors. “It’ll be before All-Star Break.”

According to the Boston Globe, Rondo suggested that he feels significantly better on the court since he first began full-contact practice in December, but he acknowledged that he is not yet in basketball shape. According to the Globe, he remained open to the possibility of an assignment in the NBA Development League before returning to the Celtics lineup.

“I feel more confident, stronger, more explosive. What I’m doing in the weight room, it’s productive,” Rondo told the Globe. “[But] I’m just trying to get back into shape. … I haven’t played ball in 12 months. You can do all the cardio, treadmill, running you want, it’s still different from basketball shape.”

Rondo was averaging 13.7 points, 11.1 assists and 5.6 rebounds a game at the time of his injury last season, the third straight year in which he averaged 11 or more assists a night. In his absence, the Celtics are averaging 19.3 assists per game, 27th among the 30 teams in the NBA.

In a topsy-turvey game befitting of much of their play thus far in the 2013-14 season, the Celtics could not put the hammer down after opening up sizable leads in both the first and second halves, ultimately missing five potential go-ahead shots in the final 90 seconds of the game en route to a 92-91 loss at home to the Hawks. The loss dropped the Celtics to 13-18, 1 1/2 games behind Toronto in the Atlantic Division.

The Celtics, who led 23-20 after the first quarter, threatened to blow the Hawks out of the building with a 13-0 run to open the second quarter, with Boston’s lead eventually ballooning to 18, at 42-24. But Atlanta closed the half on a 15-2 run of its own, with the Celtics enduring a stretch of more than 10 minutes (the final 5:52 of the second to the 7:26 mark of the third quarter) without a field goal. The Hawks laid claim to a six-point lead (54-48) with 4:55 left in the third.

From there, however, the Celtics bounced back with a 9-0 run that was punctuated by Jordan Crawford‘s 3-pointer with 3:16 to go in the third, giving Boston a 57-54 lead that it extended to as much as a nine-point lead halfway through the fourth. But the streaky Celtics once again ran off the rails after taking an 85-76 lead, as 10 unanswered points by Atlanta allowed the Hawks to claim a one-point lead with just over three minutes left. From there, the lead changed hands six times, with Jeff Teague‘s two free throws with 1:30 left (following a foul by Avery Bradley) finally giving the Hawks a lead they would not relinquish. The Celtics missed five shots down the stretch with an opportunity to take the win, the last coming when Crawford missed a 10-footer as time expired.

Kelly Olynyk led the Celtics with 21 points off the bench, shooting 8-of-11 including 3-of-5 from beyond the arc. Kris Humphries added 18 points and 10 boards off the bench. But the strong effort of the reserves was undone by an ugly performance from the starting five of Brandon Bass (9 points, 2-of-6 shooting), Jeff Green (8 points, 4-of-10), Jared Sullinger (2 points, 1-of-6 before leaving with a bruised wrist), Crawford (8 points, 3-of-15) and Bradley (8 points, 2-of-10). Meanwhile, the Celtics had no interior answer for Paul Millsap, who scored 34 points (on 12-of-19 shooting) with 15 boards.

After splitting a two-game homestand, the Celtics will next hit the road to face the Bulls on Thursday.

The Celtics head coach returned to the state in which he thrived as a college coach with Butler University only to watch the Pacers roll over Stevens’ club, 106-79, Sunday night in Indianapolis.

The Pacers, who improved to an Eastern Conference-best 22-5 with the commanding performance, held a 15-point halftime lead that the Celtics‘ were never able to recover from.

Indiana did nothing to hurt its reputation as the conference’s best defensive team, especially at home, limiting the Celtics to 38 percent shooting from the floor. The C’s only managed three players in double-figures, with Avery Bradley netting a team-high 13 points.

Indiana’s Paul George led all scorers with 24 points, while Roy Hibbert scored 15 on 7-of-11 shooting from the field. It was the Pacers’ second win over the Celtics this season in as many games.

Down by as many as 11 points in the fourth quarter, the Celtics went on a game-ending 22-7 run in the final 10 minutes to claim a 90-86 victory over the visiting Knicks on Friday night. Avery Bradley contributed seven points in the fourth quarter, including the 3-pointer that put the Celtics ahead for good with 2:38 left to play. Bradley’s 24-footer turned an 84-83 deficit into an 86-84 lead for Boston that set up the team to maintain its first-place standing in the Atlantic Division.

Jared Sullinger scored 19 points to lead the Celtics in scoring, but most of his damage came early, when the Celtics opened up a lead of up to 17 points in the first half. But in a game of drastic swings, New York ended up outscoring the Celtics by 28 points between the second and fourth quarters, until Boston went on its game-ending run.

The Celtics scored the first 12 points of the game and raced out to a 22-point lead in the first quarter (a staggering 25-3 mark in the first eight and a half minutes of the game) en route to a 114-73 victory over the Knicks in New York. Jordan Crawford poured in 23 points and delivered seven assists, while Jared Sullinger added 21, on a day when the Celtics shot 54 percent from the floor, including 56 percent from behind the 3-point line. Crawford drained half of his 12 attempts from behind the arc.

While the Celtics went through stretches where they couldn’t miss, the Knicks endured the opposite phenomenon, shooting just 34 percent for the game. Boston also enjoyed complete dominance on the glass, outrebounding New York by a 46-26 margin.

The 41-point margin represented the 16th largest in Celtics history, and the largest spread since a 108-63 win over the Kings in December 2008. The victory improved the Celtics to 10-12, good for a two-game lead in the hapless Atlantic Division.